The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision that former Gov. Bill Ritter’s cellphone bills are not public records is certainly a disappointing loss for The Denver Post, which brought the legal action.

But the broader defeat will be shared by anyone who believes in transparency and open government in Colorado.

The decision, issued Monday, essentially provides a blueprint for public officials who want to conduct the people’s business out of the public eye.

It cannot be the last word on the issue.

State lawmakers should fine-tune Colorado’s public records laws to close this loophole, which surely was not intended by those who crafted the legislation more than 40 years ago.

The nitty-gritty details of the case hinged on whether the wording of the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) should compel the governor, who regularly used his personal cellphone for state business, to release those phone records in response to an open-records request from The Post.

The newspaper only wanted to see business calls and agreed to having personal calls redacted. The court disagreed with The Post’s reading of the law and said the bills didn’t meet the statute’s definition of public records.

CORA defines public records as “writings made, maintained, or kept by the state . . . for use in the exercise of functions required or authorized by law.”

The court, on a 4-2 vote, reasoned the private cellphone bills were not kept in the governor’s “official capacity” and therefore were not public records.

Justice Nancy Rice, who penned a dissenting opinion, hit the nail on the head when she wrote the majority was creating an opportunity to “purchase an unwritten exception to CORA for the price of a monthly cellphone plan.”

It’s not that difficult to imagine how privately funded cellphones could be used to conduct public business that would forever be shielded from public scrutiny.

Gov. John Hickenlooper has wisely pledged to make available his phone records from his state-funded phone.

He also promised to have a neutral party look over records from his second phone “to make sure there’s nothing in there that’s not appropriate.”

We trust Hickenlooper will make good on those promises and we are heartened that he sees the value of transparency.

However, there’s no guarantee that future governors — or other public officials — will do the same. Do we really want public servants, whether they’re in the governor’s mansion or the smallest hamlet on the Eastern Plains, to have this ability to conduct public business without oversight?

In ruling against The Post, the court clearly made a distinction between its reading of the law and good public policy. The court’s decision, written by Justice Gregory Hobbs, pointed out the state legislature is free to change the statute.

We hope state lawmakers will act next year to do just that so Coloradans can monitor how public officials conduct the people’s business.